Welcome to a laptop battery specialist of the Fujitsu Laptop Battery
It doesn't seem so long ago that a portable computer meant a 5kg device with all the processing power of a ZX Spectrum. Things couldn't be any more different today, with Fujitsu Siemens' Lifebook S-6120 with battery like Fujitsu FPCBP175 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP198 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP234 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP262 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP263 Battery, Fujitsu LifeBook PH520 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP155 Battery, Fujitsu LifeBook T4210 Battery, Fujitsu LifeBook T4220 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP268 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP59 Battery, Fujitsu LifeBook E7110 Battery almost unrecognisable from the original breed of laptops. Not only in terms of specification, but also in sheer size - at just 1.95kg, you'll hardly even notice that you're carrying the Lifebook around with you.
As a Centrino-branded notebook, it's designed to be moved around a lot, and with built-in 802.11b wireless networking and Bluetooth, as well as infrared, 10/100 Ethernet and a V.92 modem, you've got no excuse not to keep in touch.
Portability's all very well, but you'll still need a good reason to lug the equivalent of nearly two bags of sugar about and, thankfully, the Lifebook doesn't disappoint. With its 1.6GHz Pentium-M processor and 256MB of PC2100 DDR memory, it scored an impressive overall result of 1.35 in our 2D benchmarks, so it's easily fast enough to cope with the usual office apps.
However, while the shared integrated graphics of Intel's 855GM chipset are fine for this kind of work, you can forget about serious gaming - although, as Fujitsu Siemens will rightly argue, this notebook is designed for business rather than pleasure. Nevertheless, we were interested to see how it would perform. The results weren't terribly surprising: 3DMark2001 SE returned just 1,853 in 32-bit XGA so most modern games will run at a crawl, and it left Unreal Tournament 2003 practically unplayable.
It's the only major crack in the armour, though, as elsewhere the Lifebook is an absolute pleasure to use. There's the occasional burst of activity from the cooling fan, but otherwise it's practically silent. There's no problem with build quality either - it may only have plastic casing, but you have to look twice to notice. It's reassuringly solid, as well as aesthetically sleek, while the lid is made of magnesium alloy for added protection.
Once you open the lid, you'll find the attention to design inside equally satisfying. The touchpad is responsive and the keyboard is extremely tactile, combining a pleasing depth of touch with a satisfying solidity. The layout isn't the best around, though, with some of the keys being reduced to half-width. There is, however, a Windows key and the Home/End functions are sensibly catered for on the separated cursor keys. There are also four shortcut buttons, which add an element of security by doubling up as a PIN input. Given the compact dimensions, the compromises are reasonable and you'll soon adapt to them.
The 13.3in screen is also respectable enough, as long as you don't push it too hard. It benefits from an excellent level of backlighting and is clear and sharp at the native 1,024 x 768 resolution. As long as you're sat right in front of it, you'll find that contrast isn't a problem, and the viewing angles are fine too. Response times aren't fantastic, though, and DVD movies exhibited some visible dragging, while the tiny stereo speakers struggled with dialogue. It's worth noting the absence of a TV-out too.
Owners of older peripherals will also lament the loss of the parallel, serial and PS/2 ports, but these can be added via an optional port replicator for £44. Otherwise, the Lifebook S-6120 has pretty much everything you need, including a Type II PC Card slot, four-pin FireWire port and a VGA output to connect another screen or projector. There are only two USB 2 ports, but again the port replicator adds another two if you need more. The removable combo drive offers a 16x/10x/24x CD-RW as well as a DVD-ROM, and there's the option to fit a second hard disk to supplement the 40GB Fujitsu disk already installed.